1 Samuel 19:1-7

Saul Repeatedly Attempts to Take David’s Life

19:1 Then Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much. ¹  19:2 So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying ²  to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find ³  a hiding place and stay in seclusion. ⁴  19:3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. I will speak about you to my father. When I find out what the problem is, ⁵  I will let you know.”

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ⁶  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ⁷  for you. 19:5 He risked his life ⁸  when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”

19:6 Saul accepted Jonathan’s advice ⁹  and took an oath, “As surely as the Lord lives, he will not be put to death.” 19:7 Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly. ¹⁰ 

1 Samuel 20:30

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan ¹¹  and said to him, “You stupid traitor! ¹²  Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse?

[19:1]  ¹ tn Heb “delighted greatly in David.”

[19:2]  ² tn Heb “seeking.”

[19:2]  ³ tn Heb “stay in.”

[19:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and hide yourself.”

[19:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “when I see.”

[19:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “good.”

[19:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he put his life into his hand.”

[19:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan.”

[19:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he was before him as before.”

[20:30]  ¹¹ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

[20:30]  ¹² tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.